Seventeen people died in the blast in the evening of February 12, 2010. (Source: Express Photo)
Ten years after the German Bakery bomb blast, residents of Pune are organising a tribute for the victims. Seventeen people had died and 56 were injured in the blast at the popular bakery on February 13, 2010.
The event will take place at the German Bakery in Koregaon Park at 11.30 am on Thursday.
The state Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS), which is probing the case, has so far arrested only two suspects, including Indian Mujahideen terror operative Yasin Bhatkal alias Mohammed Ahmad Mohammed Jarar Siddibappa alias Shivanand. The trial of the case is on before a special court in Pune. According to the state ATS, Yasin can be seen in the CCTV footage obtained from the blast site.
The first arrest in the case was that of Mirza Himayat Baig, a native of Beed district, on September 7, 2010, with the alleged recovery of 1.2 kg of RDX from his residence in Udgir in Latur district. On April 18, 2013, a sessions court in Pune awarded the death sentence to Baig, but in March 2016, the Bombay High Court set it aside and sentenced him to a life term, holding him guilty under Section 5 (b) of the Explosive Substances Act.
The ATS had named six other accused — Indian Mujahideen commanders Riyaz Bhatkal, Iqbal Bhatkal, Yasin Bhatkal and Mohsin Choudhari, LeT commanders Fayyaz Kagzi and Zabiuddin Ansari alias Abu Jundal — as accused in this case. Abu Jundal, who is also a key accused in the 26/11 terror attack case, was deported from Saudi Arabia to India, but has not been arrested in connection with the German Bakery blast case yet.
In August 2013, Yasin Bhatkal was arrested on the India-Nepal border. In March 2014, ATS formally arrested Yasin in the German Bakery blast case and filed a supplementary chargesheet against him later that year. The ATS framed charges against Yasin on April 29, 2019.
Meanwhile, a chargesheet submitted by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) before a Delhi court in July 2013 about IM’s overall activities in the country mentioned Yasin Bhatkal’s alleged involvement in the bakery blast, but did not name Himayat Baig. According to an investigation by Delhi Police, alleged IM operative Ajaz Shaikh of Pune, who was awarded the death penalty by a court in the Dilsukhnagar bomb blast case in Hyderabad, allegedly assisted Yasin Bhatkal in the execution of the German Bakery blast.